Has anyone in DU actually read 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand?

[Rain Mcloud]

69. I was given a choice for a report......

Atlas Shrugged or Citizen Of The Galaxy.
Having recently discovered the magic of R.A.Heinlein,I read Troopers and returned Atlas Shrugged after the first paragraph.
Then I rechecked out Troopers and read it again and again then Stranger In A Strange Land,i was smitten,you might say my first love.
Sorry Ginny.

After hearing the report on Atlas Shrugged,i knew i made the right call.
Ayn Rand's book reminded me of some weird offshoot of socialism where richest get all the spoils and the poor kill each other to get to the head of the bread line and the bitch denigrates the poor for being poor as deviant crumb snatchers as in Les Miserable'.
Fuck that Bitch!
I remember acting out parts and making Armored Combat Suit noises during my presentation,i got an A+ for exuberance and not so much for the text as i was writing with a trembling hand and waiting for the day when I could sign up to go fight on Klendathu.

Later in High School,i was accepted into the Marine Corps and it was the proudest day of my life.
That night,i waited with pounding heart and baited breath for my dad to return home from work so I could tell him the good news.
He said,'We need to go outside and talk' and he punched me in the nose.
He said 'no son of mine is going to serve in the military and go overseas to die for some raghead in afghanistan'.
I was bitterly confused at his reaction and heart broken,i needed him to be proud of me since i was a failure at math and violin and carpentry and he was displeased at my hot rods and guitars and girlfriends and drinking,i thought he would understand.
I remember every time he would talk about his service with Gen. McArthur twice in Phillipines and the Guadal Canal and Papua New Gunea and many more retaking islands and building runways,i thought my dad was Rudyard Kipling.

He continued that when he got home from the war things had changed for the worse,where once he was a hero now he was just a wood butcher and everything he did counted for nothing.
The Korean War,he felt was McArthur's attempt at an American Imperialist Renaissance with Douglas as the Supreme Commander of the World,McCarthy was re-instating the Red Scare where dad's friends in Hollywood were accused of communistic activities when in fact they were pacifist's and more apt to follow Ghandi,Eisenhower was derided openly for his views on the military and the para-military industrial combine and ridiculed for improving the highways and canals.
He told me that no son of his would ever give his life for silk pantied elitest's who were afraid of their own shadows but whom would gladly send anyone else's kids to go and die with inferior gummed up,50 year old weapons and ammunition from the lowest bid contractor for the upper-crust's to become even richer by using American children's blood to open up new markets.

That day,right there was the proudest day of my life until my son was born.
That was the day that my dad for the first time told me that he loved me and that:"Today,You are a Man,My Son."
From there I knew that I wanted to be a father,not just like my father.